Mankind Is Dramatically Transformed By Warfare, Which Evokes

Passage: “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also a mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” P.76

There have been clashes between Muslims and Christians since before the crusades. There were truces between Christians and Muslims, but they both had control of land that each group wanted. Jerusalem and the cities around it were where Jesus lived on earth which is important to both religions. Today, there are many assumptions made about both religions and its practices. Most people don’t know the whole truth when they make their assumptions. In the United States, there is a culture of not being tolerant towards Muslims because of terrorist attacks that have occurred in recent years. Both religions can be compared through the passages in the Quran and the Bible. In Arabic, ‘Allah’ means God. Christians believe in the trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Even though there may seem to be many differences between Muslims and the practice of Jihad today and Christians today, there are much more similarities than differences. During the crusades, Muslims and Christians both wanted control of the Holy Land and were more similar than different when it came to war, peace, and motivations for their actions.

evil.'; (173) This is a contradiction in that war is justified if it is for the

War is not one of the most pleasant images this world has seen. Usually it is regarded as one of the most

It is evident through events in history that many people and groups resort to barbarism to achieve their goals and aspirations. The Mongols, Christians, and Muslims demonstrated similar actions throughout their interactions with others to complete their different objectives. Yet, the barbarism exhibited by the Christians and Muslims exceeded that of the Mongols as they engaged in extreme actions to attain their conquests for religious purposes.

Warfare and violence has been a part of human life since before history was recorded. As time goes, and war still is a part of life, there is an ongoing debate on whether war and violence are inevitable. War is clearly evitable with the way humans were in the past, as well as how their closest known biological relatives act. By examining history, as well as the looking at the behavioural evidence of other primates, it is clear that warfare and violence is not inevitable.

“To return violence does nothing but intensify the existence of violence and evil in the

“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” —O’Brien, page 76

The author contradicted himself while describing war. He claimed, “ War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is

“War is evil, and it is often the lesser evil. Those who take the sword, perish by the sword, and those who don’t take the sword perish by smelly diseases.”

Both Christians and Muslims viewed themselves at the only keepers of God's word, His "ultimate revelation of himself." In their respective beginnings, each had the foundations within their doctrines, "the commandment to proselytize and spread to include all peoples." In those beginnings, neither Christians nor Muslims used violence to spread their respective religions. It was not until a population boom, which led to a hunger for land, and the control of trade routes in both regions, so They began resorting to war to spread their version of God's word. It was during this time, what the west knows as "The Crusades" Where perceptions and opinions were formed of the others adversary. Through written accounts and word of mouth, especially once the fighting broke out, the people back home formed in various ways. Especially how they interacted with each other around their known world. Those interactions between Muslims and Christians during the era of the Crusades became defined by misinterpretations of holy texts, sensationalism through stories and “eye witness accounts," and in turn perceived the other as violent savages.

Religion had a large effect on violence that broke out within the two empires. Within Islam, two sects reigned supreme. The Sunni and the Shiite. The Sunni believe that Muhammad's bloodline is not the rightful heir to becoming a caliph. Sunni believe that the next Caliph should be voted upon by the Islamic people based on merit. The Shiite believe that Muhammad's bloodline should reign supreme and the Caliphates should only follow lineage. This diametrical opposition directed the Sunni and Shiite to despise one another. Because of these conflicting ideals, riots, attacks, murders, and bloodshed occurred between the two sects. This raging controversy has continued to modern day. Christianity in the Byzantine Empire had bloodshed and destruction

According to multiple scriptures, religious ideologies were an essential component of the ancient civilizations. Religion managed to touch every aspect of ancient life, including having a correlation with warfare. A letter recounting the events of Sargon’s eight campaign describes the Neo-Assyrian concept of using religious ideologies as a motivation for conflict. Furthermore, Herodotus’ account of the Greco-Persian wars depicts the use of religion in determining the time, the means, and the outcome of warfare.

War is strongly ingrained into our world today whether we like it or not and while it may seem more prevalent and worse lately considering the advances in technology and the increase in hysteria over security, war is not a recent adjunct to society. That poses the question, where does war come from? As human beings, are we hard-wired biologically to fight each other or is it a behaviour influenced by peers and morals?

Islam has developed its Just war theory from its early development in the time of prophet Mohammad himself, Islam began the process of political rule, exercise of power and even the exertion of political will and exercise of force and the formation of a highly effective governance and expansion. Islam the concepts of war, battle, and conduct of war, among other things are not some accretion that has to be theologically justified after well over 300 years of life of the faith, but rather they are central to the formation of Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and ethics because they happen during the life of the prophet and during the process of revelations (Amjad &Charles,240). Early sources of Muhammad and caliphates in political and social contexts become weakness in today’s context that they